Among those executed was cleric Nimr al-Nimr, a high-profile figure behind a string of Shiite protests in 2011 demanding reform in the Sunni-ruled kingdom.

Amnesty reported 158 death penalties in the country for 2015, the third-highest number of executions. That was far behind Pakistan which executed 326, and Saudi Arabia’s regional rival Iran, which executed at least 977, said Amnesty whose figures exclude secretive China.

Saudi Arabia has a strict legal code under which murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death.